Comments Off on This plant-covered Singapore skyscraper could be the tropical building of the future

Steel and glass skyscrapers may work in the climates of New York City or San Francisco, but in tropical Singapore they heat up fast. So WOHA Architects designed the sustainable 30-story Oasia Hotel Downtown , presenting a green vision for better tropical towers. Plants creeping across the facade and several sky gardens cool the structure naturally. 20 species of plants and flowering vines crawling across the aluminum mesh exterior afford the hotel located in Singapore’s Central Business District a lush appearance. Eventually the entire building should be covered with the plants. For now, guests can stay in one of 300 rooms and explore sky gardens in the tower. Related: Tel Aviv’s Gran Mediterraneo Tower will feature a lush vertical garden The architects behind the project planted the greenery in a manner that wouldn’t require too much maintenance, as it’s hard to find “laborers who are both Spiderman and gardeners,” according to WOHA Architects co-founder Richard Hassell. And while the client’s goals weren’t necessarily sustainability or energy efficiency – they primarily wanted a stunning building – Hassell said he thinks the building design will offer significant energy savings. He believes the Singapore hotel could offer a model for other tropical skyscrapers around the world, which could green up city skylines. He told Curbed, “What’s interesting is the emotional appeal it has for people all over the world…Examining the central business districts of so many cities is like looking at the moon from the Earth; one is filled with life, the other is just this collection of dead stone. With Oasia, we’ve seen so many birds and insects flying around the building. People respond so well to seeing a hummingbird flying right outside their office window.” If the plants grow as planned, the tower could be more densely covered with verdant plant life in around a year. You can book a room in the hotel here . + WOHA Architects Via Curbed Images via WOHA Architects , WOHA Architects Facebook ( 1 , 2 , 3 ), and Oasia Hotels & Residences by Far East Hospitality Facebook

Comments Off on World’s Largest Vertical Garden Sets Guinness Record at Singapore’s Tree House

CDL ’s Tree House in Singapore just set a new Guinness World Record with the world’s largest vertical garden . The building’s green wall measures 24,638.59 square feet and is expected to save more than $500,000 in energy and water costs annually. It’s slated for completion in December, 2017. Read the rest of World’s Largest Vertical Garden Sets Guinness Record at Singapore’s Tree House Permalink | Add to del.icio.us | digg Post tags: “sustainable architecture” , CDL Tree House , condominium Tree House , green architecture , green skyscrapers , Guinness World Record , Guinness World Record architecture , lower carbon footprint buildings , Tree House Singapore , vertical gardens , world’s largest vertical garden

With projects like the Burj Khalifa under his belt, architect Adrian Smith has become synonymous with supertall skyscrapers – so it’s no surprise that his firm, Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill , is the creative force behind Imperial Tower , a 116-story tower that’s proposed for Mumbai. The only problem with building such a tall tower in Mumbai is dealing with the wind, but AS+GG have come up with a solution for that. The firm claims that the skinny tower is aerodynamically shaped to “confuse the wind.” Strange as that may sound, the tower will also feature several sky gardens that the firm says will further help to break up wind currents around the building. Read the rest of Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill’s Imperial Tower Could Be Mumbai’s Tallest and Greenest Skyscraper Permalink | Add to del.icio.us | digg Post tags: “Adrian Smith” , “AS+GG” , Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill , Bombay , gray water recycling , green skyscraper , green skyscrapers , high rises , Imperial Tower , India , Mumbai , rainwater harvesting , rainwater recycling , Sky-Gardens , skyscrapers , solar gain , supertall buildings

As one of the greenest citites in the nation , New York City is known as being a sustainable urban trail blazer, whether it’s through turning aging infrastructure into world class parks or passing groundbreaking green building legislation . So it’s no surprise that the Big Apple is filled with sustainable architecture, but you may not realize that many of the city’s most recognizable skyscrapers are LEED certified and feature a slew of green technologies. The iconic Empire State Building, the rising One World Trade Center, and the dazzling blue Hearst Building are just a few of NYC’s ecotastic towers — hit the jump to see the top six! READ MORE > Permalink | Add to del.icio.us | digg Post tags: “sustainable architecture” , bank of america building , conde nast building , empire state building , green skyscrapers , green skyscrapers new york , green skyscrapers nyc , hearst building , leed certified , leed skyscrapers , new york times building , nyc green buildings , one bryant park , sustainable building nyc , sustainable skyscrapers , top green skyscrapers nyc

Eco Factor: Sustainable skyscraper purifies water of a local river in Chile. A team of architectural students from the Universidad de Chile have designed a modern skyscraper that will do much more than just provide space for residential and commercial uses. The sustainable development, proposed for Chile, will purify the water of the Mapocho River, which flows directly through Santiago